Cloud Cuckoo Land

We seem to be living in cloud cuckoo land where we can carry on regardless despite our environmental and economic woes. The political Left and Right trade punches as if nothing substantial needs to change. Our politicians’ work to court popular opinion, not use logical analysis to reach conclusions that lead to action. What of the notion that our leaders should be trying to work out what is best for society and then trying to make it so? This seems sensible to me but the politics of spin seems to be all about populism not about bold leaders who persuade the population to follow them in doing what is right and necessary. In this political climate, the output of focus groups has more influence than the opinion of experts when it comes to setting policy.

In the same week that the world’s leading climate scientists finalise a report that makes deeply disturbing reading, Ed Milliband announces that he will freeze energy prices if he is elected as Prime Minister. Astonishingly, his popularity has risen as a result, instead of sealing his fate through championing policy that will lead us yet deeper into trouble. In cloud cuckoo land, we like such policy so we can keep living our lives without worrying about what tomorrow may bring. This would be an amusing aside worthy of a Wallace and Gromit story if the Labour Party was not making the promise with a straight face and people were not taking it at face value without looking beyond the sound bite to what it would mean.

 

Cheap energy prices have fuelled our economy for as long as anyone can remember based on cheap fossil fuel. To kick the habit of fossil-fuel dependency means energy prices must rise. The Conservative Party are not much better as they are reported considering reining back on incentives for renewable energy to limit the levy on fuel prices. Our politicians are vying to have us all live in cloud cuckoo land, where Wallace will be elected Prime Minister (with Gromit as the Chancellor of the Exchequer), energy prices will be pegged and the warming climate will lead to nothing more worrying than the possibility of better English wine.

As the winter draws in we can look to what to do over Christmas to enjoy the season of excessive eating, copious drinking with the thermostats turned up high. Instead of planning to go to see Santa in his Grotto in the local department store, why not book a day trip to Lapland. With all the money that we should be spending on insulation to keep our energy use (and bills) in check we could fly to Finland, have a ride on a real reindeer sledge and see Santa in his mountain grotto. This is the offer I found in this weekend’s papers for the ‘small’ price of £500 per person. It doesn’t matter that this trip has a higher carbon footprint than an entire village for a year in Bangladesh. Such a village is likely to be flooded by rising sea levels in any case so what “what the hell” let’s put on our big carbon dancing boots and be merry.

With Wallace in charge, he is bound to come up with some contraption that will make it alright. This could be huge set of bellows to capture the hot air from our politicians and drive a machine to generate power to keep cloud cuckoo land running smoothly without us noticing any disruption. This is a good place to be until reality intrudes…